Hey guys, hope someone can shed some light on this. I have a 63 Impala SS with 409/425. Engine was rebuilt a year ago last fall. Engine remained stock except for the addition of Edelbrock 1403/1404 carbs and Procomp PC-7000 dist and PC-91 coil.
Last spring I broke it in the recommended way and put almost 600 miles on it over the summer with no problems. This past winter I started it 3 times and let run for about 10 minutes but didn't drive it.
Several weeks ago when I was going to drive it it wouldn't start. It would fire every time but not start. I tracked problem down to ignition wire from firewall to coil and corrected, (I hope). So far I haven't had that problem. I took car out and drove a peaceful 1 mile drive and 1 block from home the car died and wouldn't start. Fuel pressure guage showed 6.5lbs and getting gas to carb. Walked home and got my remote starter cable and when I checked plug 1 it was an orange colored flame. Put plug back in and started and ran fine.
Today it started fine and drove around the block. Parked it and 10 minutes later it wouldn't start. Checked plug 1 again and orangish flame but car started right up again.
It seems when I pull plug 1 out and check and then reinstall it the car starts right up. My first guess would be replace wiring harness from firewall since it's all original and I've already had a problem with it.
It appears to be heat related but ran great all last summer when it was a whole lot hotter.
Thanks for reading

Did you remove the voltage reducer,probably on the firewall the 63 came with one ,the second small wire on the solenoid switch gives 12 volts while in start position then drops to 6-8 volts to run on,,you need full constsnt 12 volts for the pro comp dist.,hope you have better luck with the Pro Comp that i did or many others ,I had to remove mine with less than 200 miles,

Thanks 496
I thought I had but now you've got me wondering. It ran fine all last summer so I thought everything was cool. The orange colored flame at the plug has me wondering about the coil/dist also. What did you upgrade too?

Sweet engine. I originally looked at MSD but decided to go the cheap route. I guess you get what you pay for. Now, it's going to cost me more in the long run but the way the car runs now I'm afraid to drive it. Thanks.

My first guess would be the Pro Comp dizzy and coil. What about going to a OEM GM HEI? or converting your Pro Comp to a Pertronix Ignitor 2 (Im not even sure if this is even possible)?
Is the cap damaged? Is the plug or plug wire damaged? Do you have an old coil you can test to see if the coil is getting saturated and crapping out?

Thanks Autogear,
Cap, plugs & wires all look good. I do have the old coil I could try. It almost appears coil is crapping out once it gets hot and not delivering a hot spark. I'm going to try this and will post results.

Plugs are dry. Shouldn't the flame be more of a whiteish blue? Pressure flucuates between 6.0 - 6.5; Edelbrock says no more than 6.5. The pressure was the same last summer and it ran great then. I'm open to any suggestions and appreciate your input.

Plugs are dry. Shouldn't the flame be more of a whiteish blue? Pressure flucuates between 6.0 - 6.5; Edelbrock says no more than 6.5. The pressure was the same last summer and it ran great then. I'm open to any suggestions and appreciate your input.

On the original point type ignition if a condenser was bad it would quit running after is bet hot ,also coils would get hot ,I have poured water on the coil to get it to crank ,on the coil not on the wire connections,it is on;y a temporary fix ,just to get it off the road or home,on an electronic coil I don't know the difference in voltage output ratings they are both 12v input are you using original or aftermarket coil,might be worth a try, are you gettind a full 12 v to coil while RUNNING. some ignition wires have built in resistors in the wire instead of having a ceramic resistor.?

It's an after market coil: ProComp PC-91. I haven't checked for 12v while running but that's a good idea. I had replaced ignition wire when I first installed aftermarket dist & coil in case it was a resistor wire, (no ballast resistor either). Thank you

Update: bad coil. Sorry I didn't post sooner but I've been having problems getting onto the site; page will start to load and then freeze. Anyway, appears coil was bad. The PC-91 is a rectangular, finned heat sink with a male terminal for high voltage wire versus the round coil with female connector. The insulation around this terminal was cracked on the back side of it and shorting to ground. I'm guessing the hotter the coil got the wider the crack got until it shorted itself out and engine died. Once it cooled off the gap closed enough to wear I could start engine again. I replaced coil and haven't had any problems since, (knock on wood).
Thank you to everyone who made suggestions; each one made me dig a little deeper and look a little closer and in the end it paid off.

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